WHAT IS ONA OMI?
Ona Omi is an approach to movement and fitness that has been interwoven through years of training and study in various arts, disciplines, and schools of thought. Ona Omi meaning Waterway/Water-path is a blend of conventional and non-conventional techniques, methods and ideas. Ona-Omi utilizes concepts and philosophy to create a vitalistic and progressive approach to Longevity and expression in movement, fitness, and overall wellness.
Ona-Omi is an interaction with our environment that can express vitality, adaptability and mastery of oneself and settings. The system is a constant evolutionary development of strength and plasticity, only limited to one’s imagination and anatomy. “We aren’t robots, We are Human” if our training is unvarying, monotonous, mind-numbing, we will plateau our personal and collective development as athletes and Humans, yet if we fail to create some kind of regiment then we will not last due to a lack of a solid foundation. Ona-Omi is a bridge between these two approaches.
Ona-Omi is forming structure to become structure-less; Form to become formless, fluctuating between these two modes of movement to create something dynamic. In the African world of music and rhythm, there is often a musical pattern that remains constant, but what makes the music so vitalistic is what I call the “Jazz”. The jazz component is the breaking free of monotonous rhythm patterns, deviating and dwelling in free and almost chaotic expressions only to come back to the source (the constant/repetitive pattern). This “Jazz” can be applied to one’s training. The approach with Ona-Omi is to utilize techniques, sequences, patterns, and forms but to be able to deviate from this to create vitality within our own development (i.e. central principles of movement).
WHAT IS ADD?
(excerpt from add-academy )
“The practice of ADD aims at the (re-)appropriation of one’s environment, via moving one’s body in respect of the environment, of nature, of other people and one’s surroundings.
More than mere athletes, the founding Yamakasi have developed a state of mind in order to no longer be subjected to one’s environment, but rather (re-)learn to act and interact with it. This relationship with one’s environment being constant, the Yamakasi have developed a new way to move, closer to our primal functions reviving their instincts, practically wild.
In this way Art Du Déplacement lays emphasis on the training and constitution of the human being. Indeed, the “modern” human body (and mind) no longer being adapted to a natural environment, it has been important for the Yamakasi founders to re-learn to use all the physical and functional capacities of their bodies.”
A Philosophy for Movement
In my training, teaching, and study, I have developed and compiled a philosophy towards a movement that echoes my own self-discovery, & the teachings that have been taught to me from various schools of thought. This has lead me to put together what I describe as the Central Dogma of Movement, which I discuss further in my short PDF: Ona Omi CPM